So God and I got onto the subject of lies today. I had noticed a bottle of baby shampoo that proudly proclaimed “no more tears,” and was somewhat appalled that they could get away with such a demonstrably false claim.

God’s response was to get all clinical on me. She explained that the grey area between a lie and mere hyperbole was large enough to cover a lot of sins. The difference between fraud and mere exaggeration is often subtle and hard to fight.

“And don’t forget ignorance,” I chimed in. I mean look at all the stupid things that George W. Bush has said, does it really count as a lie if you don’t know you’re wrong?

Then she told me that ignorance was a special case, but that it didn’t apply the way I thought when it came to Bush. She said that in most cases Bush knew that he was lying but he was counting on the ignorance of the American public to let him get away with it.

And as soon as I realized the truth in that, the conversation went from being fun and interesting to just sad and depressing.